


Respite (Or Not)

by windyautistic



Category: Green Lantern (Comics), Green Lantern Corps (Comics), Hal Jordan and the Green Lantern Corps (Comics)
Genre: Gen, Rated T for language, discussion of emotions under duress of boredom, guy and kyle show up but it doesn't feel like enough for character tags, soranik natu is also there for a few seconds, trapped in a hole episode
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-24
Updated: 2020-09-24
Packaged: 2021-03-07 19:07:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,753
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26622661
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/windyautistic/pseuds/windyautistic
Summary: "So what's the plan, oh fearless leader?""We wait.""You're kidding.""No.""The last duty report was mine, which I sent out over four hours ago, and it was about sixty light years from here. They're never gonna find us.""It's two Honour Guard Lanterns missing their check-ins for a routine patrol sweep, and we're the only living things that will show up on scans within eighteen light years. We can breathe, and we're not going to starve or dehydrate any time soon. We wait."Hal groaned, and dug his hands into his flight jacket's pockets. "Alright, alright. We wait."---(Or, the trapped in a hole episode where emotions are acknowledged... Briefly.)
Relationships: Hal Jordan & John Stewart
Comments: 13
Kudos: 19





	Respite (Or Not)

**Author's Note:**

> canon is my sandbox but this is nominally set somewhere during/immediately after hal jordan and the green lantern corps. (except for the plot point of soranik running off with the remaining sinestro corps and then dropping off the face of the story, which i have dutifully ignored.)

"Ring, activate charge conservation level alpha." 

The dim light of the rings faded to nothing, as both Lanterns' uniforms faded to leave them in their street clothes, leaving them sitting against the black-glass walls, looking up at the sky. 

John broke the stillness first. "Good news, the air is breathable and we're shaded from any radiation by the walls of the canyon, and the rings are able to preserve the remaining charge basically indefinitely." 

There was a pause. Hal decided to break this one. "Bad news, we're stuck in an abyssal crack in an uncharted planet, our ring charge isn't even enough to fly out of the canyon, we can't summon our lanterns due to" -Hal switched to a mockery of the ring AI's even tones-  
_"Dimensional interference and insufficient charge"_  
-He continued in his regular voice. "and the last duty report either of us sent out was at minimum several dozen light years back." 

John sighed. "I was going to get to that." 

"And I sped along the process of getting to the part where we have some new catastrophe to get out of. So what's the plan, oh fearless leader?" 

"We wait." 

"You're kidding." 

"No." 

"The last duty report was _mine_ , which I sent out over four hours ago, and it was about sixty light years from here. They're never gonna find us." 

"It's two Honour Guard Lanterns missing their check-ins for a routine patrol sweep, and we're the only living things that will show up on scans within eighteen light years. We can breathe, and we're not going to starve or dehydrate any time soon. We wait." 

Hal groaned, and dug his hands into his flight jacket's pockets. "Alright, alright. We wait."

Waiting, it turned out, was awfully exhausting, especially after a long patrol day. By way of rock-paper-laser gun, it was decided that John would get to nap first, while Hal would keep watch for signs of help, or signs of their luck discovering them and everything going to shit _even faster_.

John settled in with his jacket as a makeshift pillow, and was out in seconds.

The quiet in the canyon settled in like a fog, and Hal rummaged in his pockets for a distraction. _Success!_ He fished out a slightly crumpled notebook with test notes, and a measly stub of a pencil shoved in the corner of the pocket. He flipped to a blank and reasonably un-crumpled page, and started coming up with ideas for whenever he was next on Earth and flying on his own time.

Several pages of increasingly unlikely stunts later, John stirred, then snapped upright with a choked sound. He glanced around before relaxing just slightly.

"I was asleep for…?" John said, his voice still unsteady.

Hal didn't point it out. "About three hours, I think?" 

"Hm."

"While you were asleep, the forces of evil in the universe did _not_ figure out how to ruin our day even more, in case you were wondering." Hal said, tucking his notebook back in his pocket. 

John stood up and stretched his arms. "Well, I suppose I can count myself lucky you didn't somehow find trouble to get into around here."

"I resent that remark." 

"You would." 

Silence settled back in, as the two made a brief check of their surroundings (which was really just an excuse to stretch their legs before they lost all feeling) and sat back down. 

"You good with me taking my turn to sleep?" Hal asked, stifling a yawn mid-sentence. 

John nodded, so Hal bundled his flight jacket up against his neck, and quickly fell asleep pressed against the canyon wall. 

* * *

John sat in silence for a while, appreciating the break from being the go-to level head on every single crisis on Oa that somebody had kicked upstairs but not quite to the Guardians. 

It was a nice kind of silence, assuming he could avoid thinking about the dull ache dreaming of Kat had left him with. 

Fortunately, their current situation left him with much more pressing concerns, like coming up with a back-up plan for getting off this planet; in case Guy or Kyle forgot to check the duty reports, or were indisposed for several days due to an incursion of planet-consuming squids, or other such problems that seemed to pop up whenever he wasn't looking. 

_Just enough charge in our rings to pull off_ one _gambit, but whatever it is, we'll be without a safety net… If there's no sign of rescue after Hal wakes up, we should use the last charge to send out a distress call, since it'll have been twelve hours with not so much as a hint of a search or check-in call..._

He leaned back to try to think of anything else they could do, before being distracted by a meteor's light cutting through the otherwise dim starry sky. One meteor followed the other, and before long the sky was lit up with blue-green streaks. 

The light show provided a good way to pass the time, while still allowing enough focus to plan. 

John was checking the power level on his ring and doing some calculations when Hal flinched awake, clutching at his chest. Hal looked around, before his shoulders slumped and he pulled his flight jacket off the ground and over his shoulders. 

"Nothing new while I was asleep?" Hal said, staring down at his hands like he wasn't sure they were really there. 

John stretched his numbed legs before he replied. "Well, we need to make a decision about whether to save our charge or put out a distress call."

"I thought you said waiting was our best option?" Hal said, looking up.

"It was, before it was more than 12 hours since our last report, and there's no sign that we're being searched for. We should have at _least_ gotten a broad-frequency ring burst by now, even on this low a charge." 

"So who's burning the charge on the distress call? Since it's not gonna take both of us to make it."

"I will."

Hal nodded, and leaned back. "More waiting, then." 

"Yes." 

John carefully ran through the distress call in his mind before disabling power conservation. ( _Aim it so it has the most likelihood of being detected even if it doesn't reach Oa, clarify location in relation to nearest reference star…_ ) 

He closed his eyes to focus on the call, and a small drop of green light rose up from the ring, before shooting off into the night sky. The last light the ring held faded, and John let out a breath. 

"Done."

"And we return to the waiting game."

  
  


* * *

  
  


The stillness and quiet of the canyon had gone from "mildly weird" to "suffocating" since Hal had woken up. He pushed his back against the canyon wall, focusing on the sensation, instead of the lingering fear running through his arms and into his chest. _No fear._

"Do you still get that nightmare we all got as rookies, where your ring fails in deep space?" John said, moving his fingers like he needed a pencil to spin. 

Hal shoved down the guilt and bile that rose up. "Not anymore." A half-truth, coiled tight around the full truth. 

John hummed in response. "It's funny, that they were right about the nightmare going away, they just didn't tell you it'd get replaced by newer ones."

Hal closed and opened his hand, _one, two, three…_ "Like the one where Batman finds you late for monitor duty?" The quip came out flat. 

John gave a half-hearted laugh. "Or just the ones where you relive your worst failures." He stared up at the sky with an unreadable expression. 

"Do you still dream about her, then?" Hal asked softly. 

John nodded. "And Xanshi, and a thousand close calls and decisions that look awful in hindsight… But it's the dreams where everything's alright and she's right there beside me that are the hardest when I wake up." John closed his eyes and sighed. "Sometimes I prefer the nightmares." 

The pause held the air still. 

John looked over to Hal. "Do you still have nightmares about…" 

"-About Parallax." Hal bit out, the words burning in his mouth. 

John nodded. 

Hal took a deep breath, pressing his hand into his arm. "...Yeah." He wanted to leave it there, but the words pushed themselves out. "Like the sensation of your thoughts not being _yours_ anymore, and not being sure what you're doing, or where you are, or _why_." He dug his fingers into his arms. "And the one where I remember what burning felt like." He smiled, crooked and completely devoid of mirth or wit.

The silence was all but suffocating. 

Hal cut it. "But really, I'm fine. It's just a nightmare. What's it gonna do, kill me?" 

John let out a huff of laughter, but there was still concern in his voice. "According to Clark, people are supposed to talk about these things." 

"Clark also thinks that sunrise is a suitable time for humans to wake up when the world _isn't_ ending, so I'm not sure I trust his opinion." 

John gave a small laugh, before the tense silence settled back into place. And held. Minutes passed. 

The universe apparently having decided they'd slacked off enough, a distant explosion rumbled through the canyon. 

A second, closer rumble had them both on their feet and alert. 

"Looks like those meteors are big enough to make it through the atmosphere." John said, surveying the meteor-streaked sky. "You were saying something about our luck finding us?" 

"Took longer than usual." Hal said, shrugging. 

The explosions got louder, and closer, and louder still, and Hal was already missing the silence. Damnit. 

Small chunks of the canyon were breaking loose and raining down.

"This is… probably not a good sign." Hal said, shuffling closer to a small alcove in the wall. 

"You don't say."

A boulder landed with a shattering _CRASH_ barely three feet away. 

Followed by a second, and a third. 

"Disabling ring power save- you good with that?" Hal asked, already doing it. 

"Do it." 

The ring started to glow, and more rocks continued to crash to the ground. 

"Should I try launching us out of the canyon and onto the- SHIT!" Hal threw up a barrier construct as the canyon wall cracked, splintered, and crashed down on them. The heavy scraping of more rocks pushed against the already flickering construct, which gave one last spark before crumbling over their heads. Then, nothing. 

* * *

John forced himself to stay conscious. The construct had spared him the impact, it was just being buried under several tons of obsidian and stone. And possibly a minor concussion. And it had been getting steadily colder since they'd (crash) landed on this planet. All in all, not ideal, but perfectly possible to stay conscious. 

Theoretically. In practice, it was proving difficult. 

Time was difficult to keep track of when it was cold, pitch dark, and painful, but John was pretty sure it had been at least a few minutes before he managed to call out. 

No response. 

Damn. 

He was _definitely_ starting to feel the cold in his fingers and face. 

What was probably minutes but sure as hell felt like freezing hours passed. 

John tried to shift, figure out if he had any wiggle room, and was rewarded by a very disturbing shifting sound in the rocks, and an increase of pressure. So that was out. 

Tapping one finger to count seconds seemed to prove time was moving forward, at least. As it moved forward, and slowly sapped whatever body heat they had left, John considered whether the warmth of sleep was worth the obvious danger of hypothermia. 

It wasn't. Bad idea. 

_Stay awake, move hands and feet, try to hold on…_

It was funny, they were talking about something before they got buried. Too late to deal with it now. 

Eons passed. Or maybe just hours. Or minutes. 

Voices slipped between the rocks, but John was losing his grasp on consciousness. 

"-signature of a ring… -come _on_!" 

Suddenly, there was _light_ and the weight pressing down on him was gone. John caught sight of a construct and finally just let unconsciousness claim him. 

* * *

The first thing Hal felt was pain. Everything hurt all over. 

Ow. 

Sights and sounds filtered in more slowly as he took in his surroundings. 

White, green, lights, beds, machines… The medical wing. Right.

…Wait, why was he in the medical wing? 

His brain was lurching towards panic, but he forced himself to take in his surroundings first. He was lying in a bed in medical, and he could see Soranik across the room at her desk, intently focused on some paperwork. Turning his head _hurt_ , but he managed to see John in another bed. 

John was okay. Hal was okay. Their distress call had been _heard._

Hal finally let himself breathe again. 

Soranik glanced up from her paperwork. "I see you’ve woken up."

Hal managed a sound that probably meant "yes" once Soranik's ring translated it. He hoped. Ow.

Soranik stood up. "Unfortunately for both of us, that means the sedative wore off, and I don't trust you to stay put while you heal, so it's back to sleep." She said, grabbing and filling a needle from a nearby tray. 

Hal considered screaming bloody murder for the serial killer tone that had. Or just making a witty retort. The pain lancing through his leg forced him to reconsider, however. Soranik walked over and poked the needle in his arm, and he felt the room get foggy.

He did manage a glare before falling back into painless unconsciousness, at least. Dignity preserved. 

* * *

John had been wandering in and out of sleep for hours, but the conversation across the room had been slowly getting louder, and he felt it dragging the peace and quiet from his hands.

"They're going to recover at exactly the same rate whether or not you two are fussing over them, and _your_ likelihood of remaining alive will keep dropping if you keep hovering over my desk." That was Soranik, and by the sound of it, she was chiding-  
"Come _on_ Soranik, we'll stay outta your way- Well look who's awake!" Guy said, turning and smiling at John. 

  
"You said we'd be allowed to check in once they woke up, Sora." Kyle said with an edge of pleading, and John stifled a laugh as Soranik pressed her fingers into the bridge of her nose, apparently trying to banish a headache. Well played, Kyle. At least John was, for once, not the target of the pleading.

Soranik apparently was resigned to her fate, and sat down at her desk, pointedly ignoring Kyle and Guy as they sat down next to the beds. Hal had apparently woken up while John was paying attention to the conversation, and he looked as confused as John was when Guy's expression turned serious.  
  


"You're not allowed to do that again, got it?" Guy said, with as much seriousness as John had seen him use in a long while. Seemingly satisfied with the silence he got in response, Guy cracked a wide smile and sat back. "Anyway, you're gonna have to heal up quick, unless you wanna miss poker night with the League."

Soranik glared at them from across the room. "If _either_ of you try to get out of bed before I finish treating you for broken bones, hypothermia, and a concussion each, I will break your legs and ring hands _myself_. Understood?" 

Arguing would have been a bad idea. They nodded.  


Guy made a face, and Kyle was trying (and failing) to stifle laughter. After mostly regaining his composure, Kyle sat back. "Really, I'm just glad you're both okay." 

* * *

Soranik was mostly tuning out the chatter as it filtered across the room, as she whittled away at organising the charts and reports that had been left in utter disaray since she'd been away. (She might acknowledge the Slyggian doctor's skill, but his habit of apparently writing absolutely nothing down would be the death of her...)

When she glanced up from her work, she assumed Kyle and Guy had left, since it was finally silent. That was until she looked over to the beds, where all four were sound asleep.

Hal and John were, astonishingly, still in their beds, Kyle was draped over a chair covered in pilfered blankets, and Guy was snoring in the exact centre of it all. Soranik smiled, and took a picture with the ring. 

Kilowog owed her a flat of Rannian wine.


End file.
